South African paralympian, Oscar Pistorius, may face more years in jail if state lawyers can get his conviction scaled up from culpable homicide to murder.
Pistorius was freed on parole in October to serve the remaining of his five-year jail term under house arrest after serving a year in prison for killing his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine’s Day in 2013.
Prosecutors are set to argue before the Supreme Court that a high court judge was wrong to let Pistorius off the more serious charge after he fired four shots through a door in his home to kill Steenkamp in the toilet.
Speaking on the development, his lawyer, Barry Roux, told newsmen that the 28-year-old athlete would not be present at the one-day hearing in Bloemfontein, 400 kilometres (250 miles) southwest of Johannesburg.
A panel of five judges will hear the appeal, and could either order a retrial, convict Pistorius of murder themselves or reject the prosecution’s appeal, legal experts have said.
Meanwhile, prosecutors said in documents filed at the court that “the high court not only approached the circumstantial evidence incorrectly, but also incorrectly excluded relevant evidence”.
They said Pistorius intended to kill Steenkamp, a move that made her flee to the toilet during a row.
The athlete, dubbed “Blade Runner” because of the carbon fibre prosthetic blades he used for competition, denied deliberately killing his girlfriend during his six months trial, saying he mistook her for an intruder at his home.
A murder conviction would result in a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison
Reuters/NAN.
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